The $5 Way to Save

The first year of school for Jude FLEW by. I can’t believe it’s already summer vacation. This year has been great for him growing in so many ways. I keep hearing from other generations of parents before me, the time is gone before you know it. And man isn’t that true!

Although it’s overwhelming, we are trying to take simple steps to start saving for college for both boys. Now hopefully they are crazy smart or have a 100 mph fastball so they get full ride scholarships. But in case that doesn’t pan out, we’ve started some planning for college now.

Even if it’s just small amounts now, it’s crazy how the money will compound over the next 15-18 years. So even a few dollars a month can grow into a nice investment down the road.

We are pretty overwhelmed with everything else as it is, and it can be hard to just pull a big chunk of change out of a bank account when we have other financial goals. So one thing we’ve started doing is saving $5 bills when we get them and putting them in an envelope for college funds. Then about every 3 months or so we deposit them into a savings account to go towards their 529 plans.

It’s crazy how fast the $5 bills accumulate and I don’t even notice they are gone! We even have Jude spotting them and reminding us to put them in the envelopes.

I thought this was a fun idea to share with you, just a simple step for planning for something that can be incredibly overwhelming to think about. Rather than face that giant mountain at once, we chip away at it $5 at a time.